Mideast peace 'road map' gets Israeli approval

WASHINGTON -- President Bush won Israel's acceptance of a blueprint for peacemaking with the Palestinians Friday, rejecting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's appeal to revise the plan but assuring him that concerns about terror attacks would be addressed.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, the president's assistant for national security, agreed with Sharon in a statement that the concerns were both real and significant.

"The United States ... will address them fully and seriously in the implementation of the road map," they said.

As a result of the promise, backed by Bush, to deal with the concerns while Israel and the Palestinians begin to carry out the U.S.-backed seven-page road map, Sharon will submit the plan to end 32 months of fighting and to set up a Palestinian state to the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday.

The blueprint was accepted by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas last week, and the Bush administration is bracing for the violence that customarily follows from peacemaking attempts.

In Paris, where he was holding talks with other foreign ministers, Powell said, "We are looking for and believe we will receive from Prime Minister Abbas, 100 percent intent and 100 percent effort to bring terror and violence under control."

Sharon mostly is worried whether the Palestinians can and will improve security arrangements and also about the extent of Abbas' reform efforts. The Palestinians, for their part, are uncertain about Israel's commitment to a viable Palestinian state being established by 2005, as Bush envisions.

The president, at a news conference at his Texas ranch, said: "I understand it's going to be difficult to achieve peace. But I believe it can happen."

Bush also said he was considering whether or not he should meet with Abbas as well as Sharon.

"If a meeting advances progress toward two states living side by side in peace, I will strongly consider such a meeting," the president said.

Bush said Sharon's acceptance of the road map was progress. "He accepted it because I assured him that the United States is committed to Israel's security," the president said.

On the Palestinian side, Information Minister Nabil Amr called the Israeli acceptance "a positive step." But, at the same time, he said, "We still insist on the American and European promises and guarantees not to have any changes in the road map."

In Gaza, meanwhile, the Islamic militant group Hamas attacked an Israeli bus with explosives Friday, wounding two people.

The bombing was Hamas' fifth in a week. The latest attack came a day after Abbas asked Hamas to stop targeting Israelis.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said he would go to the Middle East and meet with Yasser Arafat on Monday. "Everything must be tried in order to move forward," he said.

The Bush administration has tried to marginalize Arafat as an ineffective leader entwined in terror attacks on Israel. Most European and Arab countries consider Arafat the Palestinian leader. Abbas this week said Arafat was the Palestine president.

Bush's toughest decision at the moment is whether to inject himself personally into a delicate situation by meeting with Sharon and, for the first time, with Abbas.

Bush departs next Thursday on a trip to Poland, to St. Petersburg, Russia, for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and to Evian, France, for a G-8 conference.

A meeting with Sharon and Abbas could follow. The Egyptian resort Sharm el-Sheik is a probable site.

In deciding whether to go ahead, Bush will gauge how Israel and the Palestinians are "carrying out their responsibilities," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

He said those responsibilities include a continued fight by the Palestinians against terror and action by the Israelis to "help improve the human condition of the Palestinian people."

Earlier this spring, Bush appeared to welcome Israeli suggestions for revising the road map, which was prepared jointly by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

"We will expect and will welcome contributions from Israel and the Palestinians to this document," he said.

But Powell and Rice quickly sought to avert negotiations over the document. Powell said reservations about the provisions should be addressed between Israel and the Palestinians -- after peacemaking had begun.